Kiteing in wave tips

[OliverG]

Zeev,

Nice write-up bro! We can always count on you to spend a moment to convey your thoughts and experience and help others.

To date, I haven't spent much time working toward kitesurfing waves as I don't have any kind of surf background and there's still many things I don't know, but still pay attention and watch others for inspiration. LMG, for instance, has a heavy surf background and his surf style is great to watch, just raw, agressive and powerful. Chip's toeside riding is very cool, he makes it look so easy and natural. In the future, I'm sure at some point I'll add a directional to the quiver and commit more time to riding waves rather than in, on, among and over them, but I guess in referring to Zeev's write-up, I'm pretty happy staying at Stage Two and doing all the flatwater freestyle stuff with the added dynamic of 3d water. OB is perfect for that! Launching a big-air move off the backside swell of a wave and landing in front of it with the wave breaking behind you and over your shoulder racing it in towards shore can be pretty darn fun!

[dewey]

sick...
he do it on perpiss..?

z thats the tickit.

Charlie....no just trying to get over the wave before it broke and up I went. Freaked me out at first because I didn't send the kite, but I'm more comfortable in the air with my kite than in the waves, so it was all good!

[narly1]

so dewey..
that was the ocean spit n you out....?
cool

[KillaHz]

Z, I paid attention in Geometry, hell I was quite good at Geometry. But I could never get calculus!

Spot on though...I was just telling a friend who's been a 4-year on the fencer about kiting (he's a surfer and owns a kite) how it's like learning to play the drums. You want to just get on and jam but to truly progress, you first need to learn to read music, feel beats, hold the sticks, etc...

I've noticed how those of us who learned in the early days with little to no instruction, really learned everything there is to know about wind, wave and kite dynamics. We learned each one of these dynamics not by choice but because they were obstacles in our progression. We had few to follow.

I am not sure that it is necessary for people to learn to surf first as not everyone aspires to surf, but observing waves and rotations is key. The more you watch, the more it makes sense.

Think of it this way:

How many times have you set your lines up wrong since you understood visually what you were doing?
How many times did you get them wrong when you had the setup "memorized"?

Bottom line is don't get yourself into anything you don't fully understand because then you have to learn under fire.

RE: Lesson/Guides on the coast...great idea. You should talk to Kafka. He offers Wave riding lessons on the coast. He also offers Jet ski support for certain locations. You guys may want to work together.

BTW - to the surfers...How nice was that today?

GB

[whitecap]

gabe -

To answer that question, it was very sweet....Even got Alex out surfing...looking for some more of that stuff...

bob

[fearlu]

Some righteous wave-riding vids at stretchboards.com for you Rich.

[KillaHz]

gabe -

To answer that question, it was very sweet....Even got Alex out surfing...looking for some more of that stuff...

bob

Bob, a gem of a day for sure...so stoked to hear ALex got some too...get that stoke going early! We'll see what happens tomorrow...ice the shoulders.

GB

[Sander]

OB dealt me some punishment with very few rewards...
Oh well, at least it was nice to get out on a beautiful day
Kinda funny to see a sailboat with a spinnaker set going out the gate

[Greg]

Going down the line and hitting waves over and over is fun and challanging, its like power- surfing, I discribe it as surfing on stroids. Using a kite to get you in only to shut off the power to focus on the surf-feel is nice... kinda zen- still it can get boring raking rocks. (a little pun from a warped mind, sorry).
Kiting is WAY more dynamic then that, it seems a waste to limit kiteboarding to flat water and limit kitesurf to sticking to the waves. Free-Style/Surf is AWESOME!.. but awesome has its drawbacks.
Unfortunitly most people have enough trouble doing one or the other that they will screw it up for everone else if they constantly attempt to combine the two on anything other then a isloted breaks.
Clearly surf has its draw, it has its own crew and its own sets of limitations. We who KITE need to learn how to intergrate the two styles and personalitys into a workable formate and not force our ways upon others.
"The eternal quest",
L.M.G.

[windhorny]

Greg, why dont you take that Zen and pack it in your jetski. Evan, Bev,TJ, and I are going to be there at 12. Hopefully this fog will burn off.
Call me if plans change.